The Love Game
by My Onyx Heart
Summary: When Bella finds a mysterious letter addressed to her in the Cullen house, she is shocked. With help from new friend Lauren, and hopes that she will find her lost love, they follow the trail of clues that is supposed to unravel secrets. Will Bella find her love, or is she destined for another? Bella/Lauren friendship. Bella/ ? Rated M for drug use, profanity and disturbing images.


"_Words are very unnecessary, they will only do harm."_

Bella traced the gouges in the wood with her fingertip. Her finger ran across deep lines, scratches and words that were purposely scratched into the wood. She vaguely wondered why people vandalized the desks around them. Were they so bored that carving into the ancient wood eased that boredom? Did they like seeing the wood flakes chip off because of their graffiti? She didn't know, but wondering was better than the alternative.

If Bella didn't keep her mind busy, her thoughts would turn onto a darker path. That dark path would eventually lead to shaking hands, bitten fingernails and beads of sweat. Not to mention recognition of the gaping hole where her heart used to be.

School was safe. She couldn't afford to lose it in front of these people. She didn't want to be deemed more pathetic than she already was.

"Bella," The teacher speaking her name sounded strange. She couldn't remember the last time she had heard her name out loud. It seemed the entire class turned to watch her position in the back of the room. "Why do you think Romeo and Juliet fell in love so quickly?"

Mr. Berty had to be joking – not for the question but for directing it towards her. The gossip mill at Fork's High ran deep. One student hears something, tells another, another texts it to someone else and so on. The teachers eventually hear because that's all anyone is talking about in the hallways. People in this small Podunk town really had nothing better to do.

Bella automatically slung her arm across her chest, her hand coming to rest on her shoulder. She waited for the pain to spread as she answered the question the whole classroom seemed intent on hearing.

"There was never a reason," She spoke softly, her voice unused. "It just _was. _They didn't know each other but that didn't matter. It was like two souls fusing together. Their love was instant. Pure."

Mr Berty nodded his head and called on Lauren who raised her hand from the front of the room. Bella was dreading whatever Lauren had to say. She wasn't known as being a nice person, quite opposite in fact. Bella leaned in her seat to try and see her, but she was obscured by the other students.

"Yeah. But is it really realistic that they fall in _undying, I will kill myself if I can't be with you_ love, in what? Four days?" Her voice wasn't condescending, more questioning. Bella was surprised she couldn't hear a sneer.

_For humans, a little poison, a dagger through the heart. So many different options. _His words ran through Bella's mind at Lauren's question.

Bella clutched her arm tighter around her chest and spoke aloud without thinking. "Because of the relationship between Romeo and Juliet and all the other events that take course throughout the play, the story seems to take place much longer than the four day time span. Every moment is filled with weight and the action happens so quickly that it seems the characters never have time to react."

She heard a scoff. There was the Lauren she knew and _hated. _"It still doesn't seem realistic."

"The rush heightens the sense of pressure. Yes, it doesn't seem plausible to fall in _that kind of love_," Bella drawled her words the same way Lauren did; mockingly. "in only four days in the real world, but the time scheme makes sense in Shakespeare's universe."

_And there is such thing as falling in love that quickly. Real world or not. _But Bella didn't say this out loud.

The teacher stared wide-eyed between the two girls who actually initiated a debate in class, seemingly pleased that his students had such passion. _If he only knew._

The bell rang and Bella sprung to her feet, quickly grabbed her books and left the classroom. She could feel the speechless stares following her. She kept her head down – refusing to make eye contact with anyone – and watched her feet. The last thing she needed was to trip and embarrass herself further.

What had gotten into her? She hadn't verbally expressed her opinions in months and now she was sprouting off crap – well not crap, it was true – and debating with other students in class. It was a surprise the teacher even called on her today. They gave up on that months ago. It was even more of a surprise she actually answered with more than an _I don't know._

She banged into the girl's restroom with her elbows and quickly shuffled to a stall. Her books scattered across the floor as she slammed and locked the stall door. She sat on the toilet confused – her eyes absently scanning the graffiti on the walls.

What was so different about today? Every day was exactly the same. She knew she was leading a monotonous existence these past few months, but it kept the pain at bay.

After _they _left. After a week of screaming and crying, she finally seemed to run out of energy. She had no more tears and no more nightmares. Everything had just become...numb.

She went through the motions and did what was expected of her. She kept a B average – her class participation was sorely lacking – and had even applied to a few colleges. Even though her choices seemed to lean towards the more cloudy and rainy towns, she still accepted the credit for actually doing it. She kept to the rules; she was never home late, always kept Charlie fed, and the house never even had a mere speck of dust. The latter mostly being her determination to focus on anything other than what she didn't _want _to focus on.

Granted, for all her trying, she would still stare at the small crack in her ceiling at night and always kept the window open - even on nights when it was bordering on freezing outside.

But she never felt anything. Except for today.

She felt pain at remembering Romeo and Juliet and the last time she ever even thought of it, or watched it, or read it. She remembered certain words _he _spoke as they discussed the famous play. And the pain was so raw, that she even considered what he said.

No, it wouldn't take much. Not poison or a dagger; the poison was a little hard to come by - unless she used rat poison or some cleaning chemical - and she really didn't think she had the nerve - or the strength - to shove a dagger through her heart

But there were other ways. She wrapped her arms around herself as she thought of the different ways with a grim smile.

An overdose on those Vicodin pills that were still in her bathroom cabinet from last spring. She hadn't taken any of them, much to her father's chagrin, but the prescription had still been filled. Her leg hurt a lot that spring, but she was stubborn and chose to suffer in silence than show her weakness. She quickly dismissed the overdose plan; she had a horrible time swallowing pills. She always felt like the pills got caught up in her throat - kind of like the lump that seemed to be a permanant fixture there.

She could cut her wrists, but like with the dagger, she wasn't sure she had the guts to do it. Knowing her, she would pass out at the first sign of blood and never finish doing it. She would be deemed a danger to herself and maybe even admitted into a psych ward where would not only derail her plans, but cause her father heartache.

There was always the cliffs at La Push beach. She could go there during a thunderstorm when the waters were rough and she wouldn't be able to swim. She could just step off the rocks – almost as easy as taking a step forwards – and plummet to her death. If she was lucky, it was would be instant. She smiled grimly, she should definetely aim for the rocks.

But could she really do any of these things? These thoughts were so selfish. She would only be easing her own pain. Charlie and Renee would be heartbroken. She wasn't sure if anyone else would care, but her parents were enough.

So what was so different about today? Why when she had been numb for months, had she finally felt something? Was feeling something better than nothing at all?

No it wasn't. Not when the something you felt was raw, intense, pain.

The banging of the bathroom door opened and she heard loud voices coming through. She jumped and quickly lifted her books onto her lap and her legs under her so she couldn't be seen.

"He doesn't like her! She's a freshman!" Jessica Stanley screeched as if this was the worst thing in the world. Bella could hear her rapidly clicking against her phone and popping gum in her mouth.

"He said he did!" The other girl protested - just as loud and screechy as Jessica. Bella didn't recognize her voice, but through the crack on the side of the stall, she could see a flash of curly red hair. Her eyes immediately widened when she was reminded of Victoria but it soon passed when the girl giggled. Bella could never imagine Victoria doing something so mundane as giggling.

Bella rolled her eyes. She could never relate to people in high school. They just seemed very childish and immature. There were more important things in life than texting, malls and boys.

"Whatever you guys," Lauren's husky voice rose above the others. "You're so dumb."

Jessica giggled and said something indecipherable as she smacked her lips and shuffled out of the bathroom with her friends.

Bella let loose a breath she hadn't realized she was holding. Her eyes again ran across the bathroom stall as she stood. Something bright red caught her attention.

It was a quote written with lipstick. The script was feminine and loopy. _When things go wrong, don't go with them._

Bella was struck dumb at how appropriate this quote pertained to her life. After all, isn't that exactly what she did? Things fell apart and she fell apart right with them. She felt hopeless, so she made herself hopeless. She didn't bother trying to go her own way or setting a new plan in motion.

When people break up, it's hurtful and it's sad. But you don't stop living. Life is so precious that you shouldn't take any day for granted. To cease to feel, to live, is a shame.

She felt tears running down her cheeks at her epiphany. She was so stubborn. Just because she was set on one future, didn't mean there couldn't be another one. She just had to try. And feeling the pain was the first step.

Bella uncrossed her arms from her chest and stood up straight, her shoulders high. She would feel the pain now, not bury it. Hell, and maybe she could get over it someday. It wouldn't be easy, but was it really impossible? People moved on from crap everyday.

She began to push open the stall door confidently but stopped at the realization that she would see herself in a mirror for the first time in months. She could do this. One hurdle after the other.

The pain was pulling her apart, but it could fade with time. Time to buck up.

She slammed her hand against the door and gasped as it flew open. Lauren was standing in the corner of the bathroom, leaning against the sink. She took a puff of her cigarette and then ashed it on the floor.

"I was wondering when you were going to come out of there," She exhaled the smoke while she was talking and casually fanned it away from her face.

Bella stared slack-jawed at the girl in front of her. She looked different than Bella remembered. The mean girl at the lunch table she remembered had long corn-silk blonde hair reaching her waist and wore flirty skirts and button up sweaters. She was the typical stuck up high school royalty.

This girl Bella didn't recognize. She trailed her eyes across her face. Lauren wore a backwards black baseball cap over chin length light blonde hair. Her pouty lips were painted a bright red and her green eyes were lined in dark charcoal. She wore a thin white t-shirt over a noticeable black lacy bra and tight jeans.

Bella vaguely wondered how she passed the school dress code but didn't dwell on it when Lauren raised a perfect sculpted eyebrow at her. She flushed and dropped her books – caring less – and hurried towards the door. So much for her self-confidence.

"Wait," Bella heard Lauren's husky voice behind her, her usual nasally, condescending tone absent which caused Bella to stop.

She slowly turned around and saw Lauren hunched over with her cigarette dangling between her lips. Bella cocked her head confused and then blushed as she realized Lauren was picking up her books. Lauren stood with the books in one hand and moved the cigarette to the other. Bella went to grab the books, but Lauren narrowed her eyes and studied her face. She pulled the books away and placed them on the sink.

"Sit." Lauren commanded as she gestured towards the floor. Bella scrunched her face but did as she was told. She was so confused that she probably would have done anything. Did she insult Lauren in English class or accidently step on her toes in the hall? What could she have done to make this girl take notice of her?

Lauren leaned into one of the stalls and tossed her cigarette into the toilet and flushed it with the heel of her foot. Then she came to sit in front of Bella with her large oversized purse.

Bella leaned back against the wall as Lauren studied her face with pursed lips. Her eyes brightened and she turned the purse over and dumped the contents on the floor.

Bella watched fascinated as things scatted across the floor between their bodies; heart shaped post it notes, tons of pens, a cell phone, a charger for the cell phone, tampons, large pink headphones, a pair of black panties, condoms, and a make up case.

Lauren grabbed for the case and quickly zipped it open. She dumped those contents on the floor too. She held one black painted fingernail to her lips as she pursed the contents.

"Close your eyes," She ordered, picking up a liquid bottle of concealer. Bella obeyed, still confused on why this girl was doing all this.

"Just the right color," Lauren murmured as she dabbed the cool substance across Bella's face. "Not that it's _that_ surprising. Everyone in this town has the same, pasty, skin color." She snorted, "No offense."

Bella found herself lightly smiling, as comprehension finally dawned. It wasn't the first time someone had done her makeup – she felt a pain in her stomach – and she bet she really needed it. She probably looked like a zombie.

She started speaking without making the decision to, "I used to be very tan."

Lauren huffed as she smoothed the gunk underneath Bella's eyes. "I thought you were part-albino." Bella could detect the hint of teasing in Lauren's voice.

"Not always," Bella sighed, her lips hitching up. "People automatically thought that since I was from Arizona, I should have been tan. They started that joke, although I cracked a few at my own expense." She let out a soft laugh for the first time since _they _left.

"Perfect match. You can open your eyes," Lauren spoke, rummaging around in the makeup pile. She pulled her hand away with a little glass bottle that looked like ink and a tiny brush. Bella had never seen anything like it before.

"Just look up," Bella lifted her head and looked at the ceiling. Lauren laughed while dipping the brush into the glass bottle. "No, with just your eyes."

Bella stared upwards obidently as Lauren swiped a cool liquid onto her upper eyelids. "Why would you make fun yourself?" Lauren questioned with a curious tilt in her voice.

"What? Oh." Bella sighed, resisiting the rrge to blink her eyes. "It was better than telling everyone I spent the last year of my life in Pheonix stuck indoors with my mother."

"Why were you stuck inside? That would have killed me!" Lauren exclaimed dramtically. "I love the sun. Too bad we're stuck here."

Lauren was being so kind to her, fixing her lifeless eyes and socializing with her, that she forget about her heardache.

She found herself answering her, telling her something she never told anybody. "My mother and I had to take care of my grandmother. She wasn't that old. Only Sixty. But she had cancer and we couldn't afford a live in nurse."

"What did you do all day?"

"I read most of the time. Immersing myself into fantasy worlds to forget what I was missing on the outside." Bella spoke and realized how true her words were.

When Grandma Marie was dying, Bella was the one to mostly take care of her, although she didn't say that. Renee was too busy schmoozing around with Phil to be a reliable care-taker. When her Grandma was sleeping – which was most of the time – Bella read to escape her life.

That's when she changed, she realized. When she would rather sit at home than go out with friends. When Edward came into her life, it was just like one of the fantasy books she read. It was everything she dreamed of.

"That's sad." Lauren commented with no pity in her voice and she capped the brush to the mascara Bella didn't realize she was using.

Bella didn't say anything as Lauren swept her finger in the air over different lipstick tubes. "Hmm. I'm more of a jungle-red girl myself" Her finger hovered over a leopard print tube, she moved her hand and finally settled on a dull black tube. "But I think you're more of a vampire-red girl."

Bella couldn't help it. Maybe it was hysterics. But she burst out laughing. It was the first time in months she even heard of that word. The first time she even thought it. But coming from someone else's mouth, someone who was so unaware of the world except for bad fiction and even worse lipstick names, it was hilarious. Maybe she was finally losing it.

"I know the names are crap. But it's not that funny," Lauren hitched an eyebrow, uncapping the chosen lipstick as she stared at Bella disbelevingly.

"Sorry." Bella gasped, trying to rein in her laughs. She hadn't had a full belly laugh that hurt in so long, not even when _they _were here. The last time she couldn't remember, but she had never laughed like _this _when they were around. Bella wiped away her tears from her cheeks and winced when she realized she was ruining Lauren's makeup job. Her laughs stopped and she stared wide-eyed.

Lauren finally let out a burst of laughter, "Good thing that shit's waterproof. Need it in this even shittier town."

Bella giggled and studied her fingertips. Sure enough, no makeup was smudged on them.

"Now, pucker up princess," Lauren rolled her still laughing eyes and swiped the lipstick on Bella's obidient lips. She puckered her own lips and popped them, "Do that."

Bella followed suit and smacked her lips. "This isn't going to smudge on my teeth or chin, right?"

Lauren scoffed, taking off her baseball hat and running a hand through her hair before replacing it. "Of course not! Who do you take me for?"

Bella giggled. She never knew she could acutally have a pleasant conversation in the bathroom with another girl. A girl who wasn't one of _them. _A regular high school girl.

Lauren grabbed a hairbrush and scrambled on her knees behind Bella, pulling her hair tie out. She ran the brush gently through her hair, "Sometimes I wish I still had my long hair, but it was a pain in the ass to maintain."

Bella noticed that Lauren cursed a lot, but it didn't seem to bother her. The words seem to come right out of Lauren's mouth. "Why did you cut it?"

Lauren laughed suddenly, her hands stilling in Bella's hair. "I was in New York with my mother over Christmas vacation."

Her words cut off abruptly, her hands picking up their movement's in Bella's hair. Twisting, turning, pulling, yanking. Bella held in her wince.

"We were at a mall. I was approached by a man who claimed to be scouting for models." She laughed bitterly, "I was so enthralled. I had always been so full of myself. So when this random guy – not to mention, completely handsome – approached me and said I was gorgeous and could have a very successful career if only I were to get an edgier hairstyle and some professional head shots – I was game.

"If only." She scoffed, her hand reaching between Bella's arm and side to pull a couple bobby-pins out of her makeup case. Bella flinched, but either Lauren didn't notice or pretended not to. It probably didn't matter either way. "I went to El Salon."

"The Salon? That name is kind of..." Bella trailed off.

"Ridiculous? Pretentious? Yeah." Her hands continued their pursuit. "But I went, paid a hundred bucks on this haircut and then had some head shots taken by _That _man's photographer. For the whopping price of..Dun dun dun..Twelve thousand dollars."

Bella gasped but Lauren continued, ignoring her. "The worst part? Even after I found out that it was all a scam, I wasn't even worried about myself. Sure, my parent's were pissed that I dipped into my already too small college fund. But the worst part? Not being manipulated, the subject of a con or losing half my college money. The worst part was how I couldn't get over how naive or dumb I had been. My looks, to me, had been everything up until that point. I was so easily manipulated, because I was vain and naive. It may have been a good thing in retrospect, because I finally realized what a wicked fucking bitch I was because I thought I was beautiful." She snorted – as if disgusted by herself, her hands stilling. "But the worst of the worst, why I didn't even care about how I felt anymore, was all the other naive, insecure little girls who heard kind words from a stranger and had been looped into this horrible scam."

Lauren's breath whoosed out in a harsh hiss. She remained frozen, still and quiet for moment, before finally speaking. "I can't stop thinking about the other girls. I wish I could do something. Does it make me a horrible person to want revenge? Not for myself but for the other innocent souls?"

Bella breathed deeply, unsure of how to answer. To say Lauren learned her lesson was an understatement. The veil of vanity and naveity had been ripped cruelly from her eyes. She wouldn't think the same things in the same way ever again. Life had taught her a harsh lesson – she might have been better for it. But the same thing was happening everyday to other innocent, naive girls and that was something Lauren couldn't take.

Bella had severely misjudged the other girl.

Lauren moved to the front of Bella and pulled wisps of hair down around her temples. "All done," She announced in a monotone voice, her eyes guarded and steely. Closed off.

Bella stood and regarded herself in the mirror and took a step back in shock. Lauren had transformed her. Her hair was pinned back in a complicated twist with a few curly tendrils framing her face. Her eyes were framed with black liquid liner, her eyelids a smokey dark gray and her lashes looked so long and curly, that she was sure they would brush her cheeks with each blink.

But her lips. Her lips were such a shade of red – vampire-red – that she had a couple of flashing thoughts of drinking blood and how the red life source would stain her lips in the same exact way.

She was stunned. She actually looked pretty. She shook her head. More than pretty – mysteriously beautiful.

"Thank you," She whispered to Lauren. She felt immense gratitute to the girl – for not only transforming her from Weak-Bella into Siren-Bella but for sharing stories and intimate details of their lives. Bella felt she had actually made a friend. A friend that she actually liked and who didn't show her pity. She liked this new Lauren. Hopefully, she could learn to like this new, brave Bella too.

"You're welcome," Lauren replied sincerely, blotting her jungle-red lipstick on in the mirror.

Bella caught her eyes in the mirror and words seemed unnecessary between the new, although unexpected, friends.

The final bell of the day rang through the hallways and echoed into the bathroom. Bella finally realized she had skipped the last of her classes in lieu of hanging out in the bathroom with Lauren. If she wasn't so touched with kindness, she would have felt guilt for putting her academic studies on the standstill.

And she didn't even feel guilty for not feeling guilty.


End file.
